1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an improved data processing system, and in particular, to a data processing system for providing support for computer products. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a system and method for organizing and personalizing the product support experience for clients.
2. Description of Related Art
The Internet has become a cultural fixture as a source of both information and entertainment. In addition to simply operating as a source of information, the Internet often provides business enterprises with the ability to interact electronically with their customers and provide a number of value added services. For example, various Internet-based technologies have been developed to enhance the product support services provided by businesses to their customers.
Conventional Internet-based product support technologies have focused primarily on providing on-line access to product support information for troubleshooting purposes, as well as providing on-line access to downloadable software patches, service packs, drivers, updates and the like, subsequent to the release of a computer-related product. In the former instance, users are often permitted to search knowledge bases to locate information about particular problems experienced by customers, as well as search for potential solutions, workarounds, etc. In the latter instance, users may either be required to periodically check a manufacturer's website for new updates, or in the alternative, a manufacturer may find an update sufficiently important to warrant notifying customers of the presence of new updates via email or regular mail.
While conventional methods of online product support often provide some degree of assistance to customers, in many instances, product support information that could be helpful to clients may be available only internally to the business enterprise itself. Consequently, a business enterprise may have a significant amount of information that is not being used to its full potential. In addition, as clients purchase solutions from a business and then later seek information to troubleshoot a problem, the clients want information at the solution level, not at the product level. Furthermore, product support information that is available to clients may be spread across different sources and repositories. As a result, clients may be required to search knowledge bases and access multiple product sites of an enterprise in order to locate particular product or solution information. These processes can be excessively burdensome since the information, even if available to the client, may be difficult for the client to locate. This burden is compounded if there is no uniformity in presentation across the multiple product sites. For example, different products offered by a business enterprise may have a different look and feel from one another if the products are developed by different development teams. Thus, existing product support methods do not provide all of the available resources that a client may need to resolve a technical problem at a solution level.
Furthermore, information about the clients themselves is not being used to personalize and improve the product support experience. Consequently, existing clients are working too hard to support solutions provided by business enterprises. This lack of personalization may result in decreased customer satisfaction, poor perception of customer experience, and may necessitate a high level of interaction between clients and the business' support services as well.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a method and system for providing product support information in an organized manner so clients may quickly and easily obtain access to relevant information for a solution. It would further be advantageous to maintain the organization of product support information based on user input, such as system usage and feedback. It would further be advantageous to utilize information about a business' clients to personalize the product support experience.